Chicken in Caper Sauce

Name: Chicken in Caper Sauce (Alcaparrado de Pollo)
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Mexican
Ingredients: 1½ cups warm homemade chicken stock; 1½ tablespoons olive oil; 1 small onion, coarsely chopped; 5 to 6 tablespoons vegetable oil; 3 ounces (about ¾ cup) hulled pumpkin seeds; 1 small crusty roll (about 3 ounces), cut into slices; 4 black peppercorns; 1 garlic clove, coarsely chopped; One 3½-pound chicken, cut into serving pieces; 3 whole cloves; 2 teaspoons dried Oaxacan oregano or ½ teaspoon dried Mexican oregano; One 1-inch piece canela; ⅛ teaspoon saffron threads; Two 3-ounce jars capers with brine; Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Alcaparrado de Pollo

Preparation info

4
servings

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

The Food and Life of Oaxaca

By Zarela Martínez

Published 1997

About

This dish, like the Almendrado, is almost entirely Mediterranean with only one major New World ingredient—in this case, the pumpkin seeds replacing the almonds that would have been used in Moorish and Spanish cooking. I originally learned the dish from the Oaxacan cooking teacher Maria Concepción Portillo de Carballido.

Ingredients

⅛ teaspoon saffron threads
1½ cups warm homemade chicken stock
5 to 6

Americas
Europe
Mexico
Spain
Main course
Mediterranean
Oaxaca

Method

Crumble the saffron into the chicken stock and let steep a few minutes.

Heat 2 tablespoons of the vegetable oil in a medium-size skillet until very hot but not quite smoking. Add the pumpkin seeds (carefully, since they tend to pop violently as they hit the hot oil). Cook, stirring constantl